wrote:
They (loops) may be slightly quieter as far as ...
charge on the antenna itself, ...

When I lived in AZ, where the wind blew almost all the time
and the humidity was very low, particles in the wind would
deposit their charges on my dipole causing an extreme amount
of noise and sometimes even arcing. I hear dry snow can do
the same thing. I was trying out a 4:1 voltage balun one day
and noticed that particular noise source had gone away since
the balun was a DC short and bled off the charges. A later
loop also didn't have the problem. An RF choke or high-ohm
resistor across the dipole feedpoint will also cure the
problem.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Cec, in this little country we don't seem to suffer from static from
dust or other dry storms. Rather rarely, when a thunderstorm is in the
vicinity, I have experienced rain-static which occurs only during a
heavy 'tropical' downpour. At such times I am inclined to disconnect
the antenna, anyway, to avoid damage due to a direct lightning strike
on the antenna or house. The S-meter may rise to S-10 or S-11 for a
few minutes but this extreme occurs only once every few years. I have
never experienced static due to dry snow. I have only once experienced
static on a nice warm day with a completely blue sky and this lasted
only for half an hour. Never figured out why.

Using a high value resistor or choke to ground the antenna doesn't
have any effect on S-meter noise level. I would not expect it to.

I cannot see how loop antennas are less susceptible to static except
that their smaller size may have a smaller catchment area for
particles or raindrops.

Could you briefly describe what happens to the S-meter on the 160, 80
and 40 meter bands when severe static occurs in Texas, or any other
States, and how frequently static weather conditions occur strong
enough to temporally put one off the air?
----
Reg.

Reg Edwards wrote:
Could you briefly describe what happens to the S-meter on the 160, 80
and 40 meter bands when severe static occurs in Texas, or any other
States, and how frequently static weather conditions occur strong
enough to temporally put one off the air?

On my IC-745 in AZ, the coax connector would arc many
times at the transceiver about once a month during late
summer. It pinned the S-meter but didn't seem to
damage the IC-745. It arced whether the IC-745 was
on or off. A 4:1 voltage balun cured that particular
arcing problem although it generated other problems.
The PL-239 coax connectors must arc around 300 volts
or so.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Heck, next time a T-storm rolls through, I'll record it ,
and let you hear it. Simple to do with my radio running
through the sound card. I can compress the file to
mp3 to save DL time. No unzipping required.
MK